


have you found them yet?

by thestarsaretalking



Category: Space Force (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28410150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestarsaretalking/pseuds/thestarsaretalking
Summary: Chan searches for his soulmate and has no clue that Tony is hopelessly in love with him.
Relationships: Angela Ali & Chan Kaifang, Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	have you found them yet?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redhawk13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redhawk13/gifts).



> thank u to sav for answering my question about what tony would eat for lunch i owe u everything tall person, bestie, and archenemy!!

Chan learned about soulmate tattoos when he was 8 years old. He was sitting at the dinner table with his parents when he rolled up his left sleeve and held up his wrist, which had the letter A tattooed on it in sharp black ink. “Mama, what’s this?”    
  


“That’s your soulmate’s initial. Every person has their soulmate’s first initial tattooed on their wrist. See?” Chan’s mother rolled up her sleeve to reveal her tattoo of the letter R. “Your dad has a Q on his wrist. That’s the letter of my first name.” 

“So, my soulmate’s name starts with an A? How do I know who my soulmate is?” Chan questioned, glancing back down at the A on his wrist.

“You’ll know it when you see them. You’ll feel like you’re connected to them, and you’ll sense their presence. Now, finish your dumplings before they get cold,” instructed Chan’s mother as she gestured to Chan’s bowl of dumplings with her chopsticks. 

Twenty-five years later, Chan still hadn’t found his soulmate. Throughout his life, Chan met countless people whose names started with A and it was impossible to discern who he was meant to be with from the large pool of people who could potentially be his soulmate. 

However, when Chan first arrived at Space Force, his gut told him that his soulmate was somewhere nearby. He figured that gut feeling was the sense that his mother had told him about and, for the first few days, Chan tried to figure out who his soulmate could be. The most obvious candidate was Angela Ali, a pilot who Chan had quickly grown close to after she asked him to teach her about botany so she could pursue her dream of being an astronaut. But Chan wasn’t a hundred percent certain it was her because he didn’t feel strongly romantically connected to her; he mostly just saw her as a friend.

For a short while, because he had to help prepare for the mission to establish a base on the moon, Chan put any thoughts about soulmates out of his mind until Tony brought it up one day when they were hanging out in the laboratory together. 

Tony was sitting on a stool next to the lab bench Chan was working at, watching Chan carefully drop water into a petri dish with a pipette and count the drops under his breath. He loved how Chan became enveloped in his own little world whenever he was working on science stuff. 

To throw off the scientist’s counting (and because he wanted to be a little shit), Tony began stating random numbers. “Five. Seven. Twenty. Sixty-nine. Four-twenty.” 

“Tony, shut up,” Chan exclaimed exasperatedly, pausing briefly to shoot Tony a glare. 

“You’re so cute when you’re annoyed,” Tony teased, and Chan simply rolled his eyes and resumed dropping water drops into the petri dish. Then, Tony narrowed his eyes when he noticed the black tattoo on Chan’s wrist that was half-hidden by the sleeve of Chan’s lab coat. Tony’s heart involuntarily leaped when Tony remembered that his own soulmate initial tattoo was a K.

Tony had felt the same connection Chan had felt when he first stepped into the Space Force headquarters. Then, when he met Chan and learned that the doctor’s first name was Kaifang, Tony had an inkling that Chan might be the one. All the playful banter between him and Chan only served to further Tony’s theory and Tony finally worked up the nerve to test to see if he was right. 

Trying to keep his voice even, Tony tilted his head curiously and pointed at the letter on Chan’s wrist. “What’s your letter?” 

“It’s an A,” Chan replied, setting down his pipette so he could roll up his sleeve to show the tattoo on his wrist. 

“Do you know who your soulmate is?” Tony only barely managed to push the hope out of his voice. He watched Chan run his thumb over his tattoo and waited for Chan to say something along the lines of  _ I think you’re my soulmate.  _

“I’m not sure. Actually, I was thinking maybe it could be Angela. She seems really nice and it would make sense,” Chan replied, shrugging as he pulled his sleeve down. 

“Oh.” Tony sucked in a sharp breath, struggling to keep the disappointment out of his expression. What was he thinking? He didn’t even have a chance with Chan anyway. Tony’s soulmate probably had the tattoo of a T for Tony, not an A, and Tony’s soulmate wouldn’t be as amazing as Chan because Tony really didn’t deserve somebody as incredible as him. 

“What about you? What’s your letter?” Chan asked. Hearing Chan’s voice snapped Tony out of his thoughts and he peered down at his wrist. The tattoo of the letter K was completely obscured by his sleeve, but Tony could feel the letter burning onto his skin, a harsh reminder of his foolish hope. 

“Um, it’s an S,” Tony lied. He figured, for the sake of preserving what was left of his dignity, it would be better to let Chan assume that he could never be Tony’s soulmate.

Chan nodded as he picked up the pipette and poised it over the petri dish. “Cool. Have you found them yet?” 

“No, but I’m sure I’ll find them one day.” Tony smiled as he watched Chan continue counting drops under his breath. Maybe if Tony tried hard enough, he would one day get over Chan and find his real soulmate. But until then, Tony was stuck falling in love with a guy who would never love him back.

~

Tony tried. He tried detaching himself from the thought of having Chan, but he couldn’t. When he saw Chan and Angela talking in the control center together, Tony felt a pang of jealousy. He shouldn’t have felt envious; Chan and Angela looked perfect together. It wasn’t hard to imagine them as soulmates. 

But he had no clue how Chan was actually feeling. As Chan tried to grow closer to Angela, he found himself unconsciously pointing out how he didn’t feel naturally compelled to push the bounds of their friendship and move into the possibility of building a romantic relationship with her. Chan sensed that Angela felt the same as they both rarely made attempts at flirting or dared to push out of the friend-zone. 

Truthfully, in terms of pushing the bounds of friendship, Chan felt more comfortable around Tony. For instance, one evening, Chan and Tony were sitting next to each other on the stairs leading up to the main entrance of the Space Force headquarters, awaiting the arrival of the buses of Space Force scientists and military trainees that Mark and Mallory had taken out to practice simulations earlier that day. The buses were supposed to arrive in the early evening but by 7 PM, the buses were still nowhere to be found. 

“It’s the perfect night for stargazing,” Chan remarked as he tilted his head back to observe the stars that were dusted across the dark blue night sky. 

Tony, on the other hand, was too busy admiring the wondrous look Chan had in his eyes to stare at the stars. “You stargaze?” 

“Sometimes. I’d love to do it more often. The last time I stargazed was when I was on a date,” Chan admitted, glancing down at his hands as he clasped them together on his lap.

“That sounds really nice, actually. I would love to go on a stargazing date. I can imagine getting a blanket and setting up a picnic under the night sky… and you’re in the middle of a field and everything is calm,” Tony mused, raising his eyes to see the twinkling stars. No matter how bright the stars shone, they could never compare to the light in Chan’s eyes. 

As Chan looked over at Tony, he smiled at the social media manager’s wistful expression. For the first time, somebody didn’t scoff at how Chan cared so much about the stars. “Yeah, you get it.” 

“And maybe, if the mood is right, you get lucky and you can have a sweet romantic make-out session under the stars,” joked Tony. 

Covering his face with his hands, Chan muttered, “Stop it. You ruined it.” 

Tony laughed and bumped his shoulder against Chan’s playfully, and Chan dropped his hands back into his lap. Chan scooted closer to Tony and leaned his head on Tony’s shoulder, taking full advantage of their height difference. Tony inhaled a sharp breath that he hoped Chan didn’t hear and pressed his lips together, fearful of speaking and ruining the moment. 

The two friends sat in silence, neither of them feeling particularly pressured to cram small talk into the serenity. They both simply sat side by side, enjoying each others’ presence. It was nice just having each other. 

Then, the sound of tires grounding against gravel cut through the quiet, and Chan lifted his head from Tony’s shoulder. They both hurried to stand up and greet the scientists and trainees, the moment fading quickly. 

Chan couldn’t stop thinking about that evening. He kept wondering if Tony would have said yes if he asked Tony to go on a stargazing date with him. He felt like Tony would understand and appreciate the beauty of the stars if Chan had a chance to tell him about all the constellations adorning the night skies. Regardless, Chan still thought Angela was most likely his soulmate and figured he was just confusing his feelings.

“Hey, when are you going to ask Angela out?” Tony questioned when he and Chan were organizing files into file cabinets per Mallory’s request (it was obviously just Mallory trying to keep the two busy so they could stay out of trouble). 

Chan pulled himself out of his thoughts and shoved a file into one of the drawers in the file cabinet. “Oh, um… I was thinking about asking her out tomorrow actually.” 

“Good. That’s good. Good luck,” Tony responded, pointedly avoiding Chan’s gaze and kneeling to put a file in one of the lower drawers of the cabinet. 

“Thanks.” Chan forced a smile even though he knew Tony wasn’t looking. He was mostly just doing it for his own benefit; he didn’t really feel excited as he should be but he kept repeating that it would all make sense if he ignored his gut instinct and followed his plan.

In the morning of the following day, Chan happened to bump into Angela in the atrium and decided to take the chance to ask. 

“Angela!” Chan called, catching Angela’s attention. The pilot walked closer to Chan with a smile on her face, and Chan, in a slightly lower voice, continued, “So, I was thinking that, if you have time this weekend, we should-” 

Sighing deeply, Angela cut Chan off. “Chan, I know what you’re going to ask and I’m sorry but no, I can’t.” 

Well, that wasn’t the response Chan was expecting. Nevertheless, Chan bit back his dismay. “Why not?” 

“I know you think I’m your soulmate. I saw the A tattoo on your wrist. But the A isn’t for Angela.” 

“How do you know?” Chan frowned, unconsciously tugging at his sleeve that his tattoo was hidden under. 

“Because you’re not mine. Look.” Angela rolled up her sleeve to reveal the letter M tattooed on her wrist. “See?” 

“Oh.” Chan’s heart sank a little. He really thought he had met his soulmate after years and years of searching. Maybe the feeling he had that his soulmate was somewhere nearby was wrong and he’d just mistaken his hope for feelings. 

“I’m sorry. I hope you find your soulmate soon.” Angela apologetically patted Chan on the shoulder before she resumed walking. 

Chan stood in place, letting his disappointment sink for a second. Then, he walked back to the control center and went about the day, working extra hard to not mull over the letter on his wrist that he just couldn’t seem to stop thinking about. 

Later, during Chan’s lunch break, Chan met Tony in the cafeteria. Tony had spent all money mentally bracing himself to congratulate Chan on finally getting with his soulmate, but he was confused when he saw a despondent look on Chan’s face. 

“Hey, what happened? How’d it go?” Tony asked as Chan walked up to where he was standing in line waiting to order his lunch. 

“Angela isn’t my soulmate. She showed me her soulmate tattoo and it’s not my initial,” Chan glumly informed, glancing down at his shoes. “I guess I’ll just have to keep looking.” 

“Aw, I’m sorry to hear about that,” Tony sympathetically offered as he stepped up to the counter to order. He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out his wallet as he faced the person behind the cash register. “Hi, can I get a grilled cheese sandwich?” 

“That’ll be six dollars and fifty cents.” 

As Tony opened his wallet, Chan noticed that Tony’s left sleeve had lifted slightly to show the tattoo of the letter K in bold black ink. While Tony handed a ten-dollar bill to the person, Chan pointed to the tattoo and asked, “Wait, your soulmate tattoo is a K? I thought you said it was an S.” 

Tony’s mouth dropped open as Tony flusteredly tried to explain, “Um, I- shit.” 

In his shock, Tony accidentally let his wallet slip out of his hand and winced when he heard it drop onto the floor with a dull thud. 

“Here, I got it.” Chan bent down to pick up the wallet and the cards that fell out of it when it fell. He abruptly froze when he picked up Tony’s Space Force ID card that had his full name printed on it: Anthony F. Scarapidduci. 

Slowly standing up, Chan handed Tony his belongings back and questioned, “Your first name is Anthony?”

“Yeah, but everybody calls me F. Tony Scarapiducci so they can have an excuse for calling me Fuck Tony,” Tony replied, checking to see that he had everything in his wallet. Suddenly, everything clicked. Chan’s mouth fell open slightly as realization dawned on him. Tony glanced up from his wallet and gave Chan a confused look. “You okay?” 

“A for Anthony,” Chan whispered.

“What?” Tony frowned, placing his wallet back into his pocket.    
  


Chan pulled his left sleeve down to expose his tattoo of the letter A as he clarified, “The A isn’t for Angela. It’s for Anthony. And the K on your wrist is for Kaifang. Wait, did you think I was your soulmate?” 

“Uh, kind of? I just didn’t think- I figured it might be you but even if it was you and you wanted to be with Angela, I wouldn’t want to take that away from you,” Tony admitted, avoiding Chan’s gaze. 

“Tony, you’re such an idiot,” Chan laughed as he stepped closer to Tony. Tony’s heartbeat quickened and his thoughts jumbled in his brain; all he could focus on was how close Chan was to him. They were only a few feet apart and it wouldn’t take much to close the gap between their lips.

With what little logic left in his brain, Tony was only able to muster, “I am?” 

Instead of answering with words, Chan yanked Tony down by his blue and white striped tie so he could kiss him. It took Tony a few seconds to get over the initial shock of feeling Chan’s lips on his before Tony wrapped his arms around Chan’s shoulders and melted into the kiss. Smiling into the kiss, Chan realized that, for once, it finally felt right. After years of searching, he finally found his soulmate.


End file.
